trash in cylinders--how clean before heads back on?

Had the heads off for a head swap and shock-tower cut, but Hurricane Katrina and then a 3 week business trip to Guam/Hawaii set the shock-tower cut and reassembly back for over a month.

Anyway, after doing the grinding on the shock tower welds to clean them up, and sitting around a while, there is quite a bit of dirt-dust and metal-dust in a couple of the cylinders (they were covered, but you know how dust is...it will find it's way in there somehow!)

Anyway, how clean do they need to be, and any suggestions for cleaning them?

Before I left, not knowing how long I would have to wait before getting a chance to work on the car, I put oil in all cylinders just to keep rust from setting in, so it has caught most of the dust. I know any dirt in there will shorten engine life, so I need to know how to get it as clean as possible.

I was thinking of running the old oil filter (~2000 miles on it) with new oil when I reassemble and begin running, then run it maybe 20 minutes, then swap oil and filter again. Any other suggestions, or alternate suggestions?

 

As clean as possible. What I did was take a new clean shop rag and put some oil on it and wipe around all the cylinders. Then turned the motor by hand and cleaned more and more until I could turn the motor without seeing any more dirt left on the cylinder walls. I then changed the oil twice in the first 1,000 miles. Car has over 10,000 on it since then and it's still running fine. The cylinders are still showing a cross hatch with almost 100,000 on the engine.

 

I was worried that someone would say to turn it over...I have the dizzy marked at where the firing is when I took it apart and then hoped to not have to turn it. I guess I can mark which piston it TDC and which lifters are at the top, and rotate a couple times hoping to get back to "close to where I am at."

Maybe mark the where the distributor notch is currently, and make sure I am back there when I stop rotating. That would probably be the best way.

Or, I could do it the right way and find TDC #1 at the right stroke and do it from scratch, like you are supposed to.

Jamie, How much crap did you have and what kind? Much of mine was the leftover metal dust from grinding steel plates and welds for the tower cuts. Did you have anything that fine and corrosive in there?

 

One of the best cleaners for cylinder walls is a rag soaked with automatic trans fluid. It has detergents that clean out the pores in the metal. That's what I use to clean cylinder bores when I get a block back from the machine shop.

 

If you are that worried about the location of the distributor,install the distributor with the heads and intake off (at the location you've previously marked),turn the motor to clean the cylinders,now make new reference marks as to the location of the dist. I myself would bring the #1 to TDC at start over.... Hotrod-Daddy

 

Hotrod-Daddy

sometimes, the "simplest" explanations are the BEST. And the easiest. I wish I would have thought of that!!!

 

I mainly just had dust and dirt. I had my head off of my car for about 3 days back in the spring when I rebuilt my valve train. Mostly just pollen and little bits of dirt and carbon from the tops of the pistons clung on. Nothing corrosive.

 

Once again, Jamie, do you ever go to sleep???

I think I will follow yours, and Hotrod-daddy's advice, and put the dizzy back in, roll the engine over while cleaning it out, then put it all back together again expecting it to start right up...I hope. The worst part of putting an engine back together is firing it up and finding that your timing is off...I love the sound of instant firing and running after a rebuild, but hate the sound of misfires and backfires from having the timing off...!!!

 

When I put mine back together I honestly figgured it was a lost cause and would never start. That was the first time I had ever had a car engine that far apart. It had to turn over for about 15 seconds to get the gas pumped back into the carb. After it turned over and over and over I was about to give up when all a sudden it starts going putt... putt putt.. putt and then VROOOOM! Of course I didn't have to take my distributor out on my 6 cylinder so the timeing was fine.

That was probably the single most thing that gave me the confidence to work on this car on my own instead of takeing to someone to have the work done for me.

Sleep? Not sure I understand the meaning of that word.

 

i have takin a 460 that had bin sitting in a field for 2 years put it in my truck and it started the first try. did not evin clean it same old oil and dirt. GO FORDS!!!! i just wonted to see if it would still run, put over 200,000 miles befor blowing.

 

Must have been covered up. If it was just sitting out in the weather theres no way.

 

These Ford engines are just lika old timex wtches.......They take a lickin' and keep on tickin' Hotrod-Daddy

 

no it wasint coverd up i think i just got luky.

 

Thanks for the "inspiration".

I will clean the best i can, with the dizzy in hole, and expect it to start up...as it always has before.

Thanks for all the help. I will not give an answer as to how well it runs, as I still have to get an exhaust sytem setup, etc. I only have heads, headers, and air...

 

If you say so. I left a 360 sitting out for a week and it was froze. Rust in 3 cylinders. I have a very hard time believeing a 460 sat out for 2 years and didn't get any water in it. One good shower is all it takes to lock a motor solid.

Now if it had a air cleaner on it and was sitting in a way that water couldn't get in the exaust ports, then I could believe it.